Ohakles mettam



o. METTAM. IRON PAVEMENT.

No. 16,692; Patented Peb. 24, 1857.

l l Z" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES METTAM, OF NEI/V YORK, N. Y.

IRON PAVEMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 16,692, dated February 24, 1857.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it lmown that I, CHARLES MET'IAM, of

the city, county, and State of New York,

have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Mode of Connecting theBlocks or Plates of Iron Pavements; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description 'of the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a plan view showing several blocksor plates united by my improved mode of connection. Fig. 2 is ahorizontal section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in bothfigures.

This invention consists in casting each block or plate with a number ofhooks projecting laterally from its lower part and turning upwardvertically in the form of tenons, and with a corresponding number ofmortises in its lower side; the said hooks and mortises being so formedand arranged, that when the blocks or plates are laid, the laterallyprojecting portions of the hooks of each plate will give support to, andthe upturned portions will enter the mortises in, the adjoining plates;and thus the plates will receive mutual support and be locked togetherin a lateral direction.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe it with reference to the drawin s.

A, are the blocks or plates, which I prefer to make of hexagonal form,cast with bosses or other projections on their upper surfaces to give aproper foot-hold to horses or pedestrians. One half the sides of eachare cast with hooks a, a, and the other with mortises b, b; the hooksbeing arranged on three adjacent sides, and the mortises on the otherthree adjacent sides, for the purpose ofenabling the pavement to be laiddown and taken up with facility. The hooks a, a, are of rectangular formstarting in a horizontal direction from the bottom of the blocks orplates and turning up in the form of vertical tenons. The horizontalportions of the hooks fit close up to the bottom of the adjoiningplates, and the vertical tenon-like portions enter the mortises in thesame, as is shown in Fig. 2, and in this way the blocks or plates arevery securely locked together as well as made mutually supporting.

I do not claim the casting of the blocks or plates with lateralprojections on the lower parts to extend under the adjacent blocks orplates; neither do I claim the casting of the blocks or plates withtenons to enter mortises in the adjacent blocks or plates, when suchtenons stand out laterally from the sides of the blocks or plates; but

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is:

Casting each block or plate with a number of hooks standing outlaterally from below the general level of the bottom thereof and turningupward in the form of vertical tenons, and with a corresponding numberof mortises in the lower faces, so that when the plates are laidtogether the vertical tenons of one block or plate enter mortises inadjacent ones, and the mortises receive tenons of adjacent ones whilethe laterally projecting portions of the blocks or plates make themmutually supporting, substantially as herein described.

CHAS. METTAM. Witnesses:

WILLIAM TUsoH, S. J. COHEN,

